The Darkness Within by Lisa Stone

How do I review a book which wars against the medical side of me, everything scientific in me keeps rebelling about the story presented in this book. Keeping the doctor in me quiet, I am now attempting to put forth my thoughts about this book.

The story is thus

Shane, an abusive boyfriend, hits Rosie and drives off with her car, has an accident.

Rosie, thinking that Shane has left her, takes time off work and recuperates, till she can join the land of living. She slowly begins to restart her life and work.

A few miles away, Andrew, a reverend and his wife Elizabeth, are praying for a new heart for their son Jacob who is in his last stages of heart failure.

He receives a new heart and slowly and steadily, as the pages turn, it seems a new personality too. Long gone is their loving and polite son, who is replaced by this stranger who swears, drinks, smokes weed, sees porn and is a total anathema to the son they have raised. How does a single heart transplant give a personality transplant. That’s explained in the cellular memory phenomena. In the entire story, Jacob lies, cheats and murders to get his way around. He breaks off with his long last girlfriend Eloise abusively, meets up with Rosie and the entire abuse cycle continues till the ending which is ludicrous and abrupt. How is Jacob’s sins justified… Apparently it’s hide it under the carpet and all is forgotten..

What goes against my realm of understanding is the way jacob’s parents behave in the entire story. They can see what their son is turning into, yet, other than think and pray about it, they seem to turn a blind eye. In fact most of the times i felt that they were enabling him, in their fear of losing their son. This part of the story just didn’t gel with me. Somehow I could not connect with any of the characters, each one is passive in their own way esp the mother. she tested my patience in a major way.

Cathy Glass, writing as Lisa Stone, is a renowned author, writing her memoirs is a social worker for abused children. Her books usually are very heart wrenching but this book is lacking a lot of things. Cell memory phenomena is an open theory, lots in favour and lots against it. In a backdrop of fiction, I am ready to leave my basic medical knowledge provided there is a story in the words written, a beginning, a middle and an end, which would justify my time given to it…

A miss or a go, either way the book ceased to matter when I stopped reading. Read it, at your own risk . Concept of cell memory phenomena was good but writing a story with that as a backdrop is a miss.

I did message an anaesthesiologist friend of mine who does heart transplant regularly and so far he hasn’t come across any such incidents but lot of reports on the net about it, verity of the theory has yet to be proved.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Avon Books and this is my honest and unbiased opinion

My rating : 2.5 stars

About the Author

Cathy Glass is a brand name, after her bestselling books on fostering took the non-fiction world by storm. This is her first crime novelBook blurb

When critically ill Jacob Wilson is given a life-saving heart transplant, his parents are relieved that their loving son has been saved.However, before long, his family are forced to accept that something has changed in Jacob. Their once loving son is slowly being replaced by a violent man whose mood swings leave them terrified – but is it their fault? Jacob’s girlfriend, Rosie, is convinced the man she loves is suffering from stress. But when his moods turn on her, she begins to doubt herself – and she can only hide the bruises for so long.

When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob’s family are forced to confront their darkest fears. Has the boy they raised become a monster? Or is someone else to blame?

I like the honesty in your review. Suspending belief in fiction writing is doable sometimes but not every time. It seems like it may have been a better story if it was centered more around how the family and friends reacted and responded to the abrupt personality changes. Maybe the author was reaching a little too far outside of her comfort zone. 🙂

Maybe, Tami.. But I hated all the characters.. Each one took abuse and did nothing till the end and even there main characters crimes were hid. I don’t like that. Tami, I can’t suspend so much belief for justifying crime and abuse.. Mother character was the worst…

Yeah that was the feeling that I got from your review – I really need to connect with the characters too, or at least some of the characters. It seems strange that someone that had success in writing non-fiction about social work dropped the ball so badly with fiction. It seems like a missed opportunity to tell the story in an appropriate way that it should have been handled. Why jump straight to an outlandish theory like transplant personality – there are things like substance abuse, mental illness etc that are more likely to cause abrupt personality changes. A story about coping with those situations may have been more impactful.

The concept was new in the fiction world but the handling was not good.. People have 4 stars and 5 stars on goodreads but I couldn’t get with it.. Passively justifying abuse and then hiding it somehow hits hard as a woman. I wanted to rebel against injustice, do something… So I finished reviewed and gave 2.5 stars…

Oh Cynthia, thank u so much for taking the time to read.. And comment. There was something off in that book. I wish they wouldn’t portray all books as psychological thriller when they are clearly not. I look forward to ur comments. I think i have tagged you for the Versatile Blogger award… Could you see it on ur site

Ok even I am new to this.. It goes like this as the rules say.. There are 4
1) u copy paste the logo of the tag the photo which is there at the beginning of my post
2) then u thank me for nominating and say good things about me and my blog if u can think of any hehehe
3) copy paste the description of the award
4) tell us 7 unknown facts about urself
5) nominate 10 people then go to their posts and copy paste the URL of ur blog that u have nominated them

Even i didn’t know Sophie.. I went online to check few articles called up a friend of mine who does heart transplant but he hasn’t seen that in his patients… So I don’t mind the theory if the story is strong..